Electric winding device for clocks.



PATENTED SEPT. 26, 1905.

0. S. BURTON. ELECTRIC WINDING DEVICE FOR CLOCKS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 261902.

UNITED STATES CHARLES S. BURTON, OF OAK PARK, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE NATIONAL SELF-WINDING CLOCK COMPANY,

OF CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

ELECTRIC WINDING DEVICE FOR CLOCKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 26, 1905.

'To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES S. BURTON, a citizen of the United States. residing at Oak Park, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Winding Devices for Clocks, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide improved mechanism and devices for operating the winding devices of electrically-wound clocks.

It relates particularly to the devices for closing the circuit by which the winding-magnet is energized.

It consists in the features of construction which are set out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan of a portion of a clock-movement having my improvements. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the same having a portion of the forward frame-plate and certain other parts partly broken away to disclose the details. Fig. i is a section at the line 4 4: on Fig. 1.

The clock-movement to which I have shown my improvements applied in the drawings is operated by two weights carried at the end of leverarms which are alternately lifted at short intervals and which in their descent engage, by means of pawl-and-ratchet devices, the main shaft of the train, the lifting of the weighted levers being effected by the armature of the electromagnet when it is attracted toward the poles of the magnet upon the energizing of the circuit. This mechanism so far as necessary to the understanding of the relation of my improvements thereto I will first describe.

The main shaft 1 is also the minute-hand staff. It has rigid with it the prime wheel 2 of the train. I have not illustrated any more of the train, since the details of such train are not material to my invention. Fast on the shaft 1 are two ratchet-disks 3 and 4:, and loose on the shaft alongside the ratchet-disks and between them are mounted the levers 5 and 6, carrying at their extremities the operating-weights 7 and 8. Upon each lever there is a pawl 9, which overhangs and engages the adjacent ratchet-disk in direction to operate the latter as the weighted lever is lifted. Each lever is extended in disk-like formation about its pivot-bearing on the shaft, and in each disk extension there is formed a slot 10, curved in an are about the axis of the shaft. 11 is the electromagnet for operating the winding devices. Its armature 12 is pivoted to the frameplates, one pivot being shown, and it oscillates about its pivot through-a small angle to- Ward and from the magnet-poles. It has an arm or finger 12 extended from its vibrating edge, to the end of which there is connected a link 13. This link extends up and back toward a point between-the slotted disks of the levers and has a cross-pin projecting in both directions and entering the slots 10 10 in said levers, respectively. When the armature is attracted to the magnet, the link 13 is pulled in direction to cause its cross-pin to engage in the slots to rock either lever in the end of whose slot it may be lodged when the movement commences through an angle corresponding to the distance between consecutive teeth of the ratchet-disk, and the angular extent of the slot is a like distancethat is to say, that if sufficient momentum is given to the weighted lever by the pull of thelink upon it it may move beyond the point to which it is positively actuated a further equal distance, causing the pawl to become engaged in the second notch of the ratchet, the pin traversing the slot during such movement under momentum. This construction causes the pin if it is at the farther end of the slot when the movement commences to traverse the entire length of the slot without actuating the lever at all. It is intended that the two levers shall be set one notch apart and that the circuit shall be closed to cause the magnet-armature to be actuated whenever either lever has descended to a position such that the end of the slot has reached the pin, and the lever continuing to move, the engagement with the pin has rocked the armature away from the magnet-poles to the maximum limit contemplated. The circuit being closed at this point, the armatures movement, it' will be observed, will lift the lever whose fall to the limit closed the circuit, and the movement being sufliciently abrupt the imparted momentum will carry said lever up two notches, while the other lever, being in mid-position, will receive no actuation at all, because in the armature movement the pin will merely traverse the slot of the second lever.

gap

Thus if each lever is adapted to close the circuit when it reaches its lower limit of oscillation the lovers will be restored alternately by the action of the magnet to the highest position, the magnet thus being required to lift only one lever at a time, although both will be operating upon the train at all times, except for the brief instant during which the lifting action is performed upon one of them, and during that brief instant the other will beep-- era-ting to keep the train moving. The mecl anism thus far described is not my invention, but is shown in Patent No. 637,4:54, granted to F. I. Getty November 21, 1899. provement consists in the application to such a movement as that above described of means for closing the electric curcuit to energize the magnet. This means I will now describe.

Upon the shaft 1 there is pivoted a carrier 14 for a mercury-holder 15, the latter being a small tube which is mounted on the carrier at a distance from the pivotal bearing of the latter on the shaft-that is, so that it subtends an are, which might be drawn about the piv-.

otal axis. Preferably it is so mounted that the carrier and mercury-holder acting as a single rigid element would occupy a position of unstable equilibrium when the mercuryholder is horizontally above the shaft. The mercury-holder is intended to be shown as of metal; but whether it be entirely of metal or only provided with metal extending from the carrier to some point in its inner surface near the capped end is not essential. The mercury-holder has a cap 16, which is insulated from the body of the holder by disk 17, the insulating-disk being secured to the cap by metal screw 18, the head of which protrudes within the holder. A conducting-wire 19 extends from the cap to an insulated bindingpost 20, which is preferably so mounted that the wire may be attached to it substantially or approximately in line with the shaft 1, and from the same binding-post the wire 21 extends to the magnet, and thence a wire 22 extends to one pole of the energizing-battery. (Not shown.) From the clock-frame at any point a wire 23 extends to the other pole of the battery. It will be seen that whenever the mercury-holder is tilted over with the cap end downward any mercury therein falling to that end will close the circuit between the screw 18 and the body of the holder and that said circuit will then be complete by way of the metal carrier and its bearings and the clock-frame through the magnet and battery, and the magnet being thereupon energized the armature will be attracted. Provision being now made for causing the movement of the armature to reverse the position of the mercury-carriage holder, causing the cap end to be uppermost, will cause the mercury to leave that end, breaking the circuit and leaving the armature free to be carried away from the magnet by the falling action of the My im-- weighted levers, as described. To cause the mercury holder to derive such oscillation from the movement of the armature and the weighted levers, I form in the carrier a curved slot 24, through which the pin 26 passes, this slot having substantially the same angular extent as the slots in the lever-disks. The slot is at such position that when the mercury-holder is tilted over into circuit-closing position the pin is at the opposite end of the slot. Therefore when the armature is pulled toward the magnet the movement of the pin pulls the carrier up toward position of unstable equilibrium, and the momentum will carry it a little past that position and cause it to fall over to the other extreme position, the extent of the slot permitting such falling movement, and the pin being at the end of that movement lodged in the farther end of the slot. As the armature is lifted by the descending movement of the weighted lever which is next to be lifted, the pin being at the end of the slot toward which it is being pushed, lifts the carrier again to the position of unstable equilibrium. This movement being a slow one, it is necessary that the slot should be located so that the carrier may be moved a little past the central position, and thereupon it will fall over to the original circuit-closing position, the pin traversing the slot to the opposite end during such fall, the circuit being again closed, and the action repeated. I

The chamber in which electrical connection is made between two electrodes in the magnetenergizing circuit by a liquid conductor contained in the chamber and caused to flow to position for contact with both electrodes I call a liquid-contact chamber, and this term wherever used in this specification and claims is to be understood as comprehending the chamber with its electrodes, liquid conductor, and circuit connections. The end toward which the liquid is made to flow for closing the circuit I refer to as the contact end.

I claim- 1. In an electric clock, in combination with the prime shaft, a weighted lever pivoted thereon and having pawl-and-ratchet connection therewith, adapted to rotate the shaft when the lever descends; an electromagnet and its armature and a connection from the latter terminating with a pin which engages a slot in the lever, whereby the lever and armature communicate movement to each other with play or range of movement independent of that which they respectively communicate and receive; a liquid-contact chamber and its carrier pivotally mounted on the shaft, the carrier having a slot engaged by the pin, whereby the chamber is tilted when the armature moves, and has a range of tilting movement in each direction in excess of that communicated through the pin.

2. In an electric clock, in combination with IIO gages substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two Witnesses, at 5 Chicago,1llinois,this 20th day of August,A.D.

CHAS. S. BURTON.

In presence of J. S. ABBOTT, EDGAR L. CONANTO 

